


The Ghosts That We Knew

by SparksSeer



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Confrontations, Dancing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Prompt Fill, Slow Dancing, glenn miller music, post-episode: s02e09 Something Borrowed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 19:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10997271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparksSeer/pseuds/SparksSeer
Summary: After Gwen's wedding, both Jack and Ianto are engrossed in their own thoughts, both unaware of what goes through the mind of the other. While Ianto is hurt by Jack's behaviour during the wedding, Jack is remembering his own wedding decades ago.(Set the night/morning after the events of 'Something Borrowed')





	The Ghosts That We Knew

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a response to the "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" anniversary celebration, held by  
> [we-are-torchwood](http://we-are-torchwood.tumblr.com/post/159844431394/the-empty-childthe-doctor-dances-anniversary) to celebrate 12 years since those two episodes first aired and Captain Jack Harkness was introduced. I'm filling the prompts for Thursday (Glenn Miller music) and Sunday (Dancing).
> 
> The title of the fic is from the song "Ghosts That We Knew" by Mumford & Sons.

Ianto was tired and exhausted. While Tosh and Owen had stayed at the hotel to finish the last bit of clean up and making sure that all the wedding guests ended up in their respective rooms before the hotel staff set to work in the morning, Ianto and Jack were now driving it back to the hub with the dead nostrovite in the back of the SUV.

The drive was silent. Jack had barely sad a word since they left the hotel and Ianto hadn’t tried to start a conversation either. He was still slightly hurt and unsure about Jack’s behaviour at the wedding. The way Jack had danced with Gwen, making big eyes at one another… Before this day Ianto had finally thought he and Jack were _something_ , and had thought that even though neither of them had said it directly, that what they had had to be based on love, or at the very least on some very deep feelings for each other. But after that dance… and even once Ianto had interrupted them had danced with Jack, Jack’s attention had been elsewhere - and most definitely not on him. He moved his gaze from his lover and stared out of the window.

Ianto yawned and was glad that Jack was driving. It was close to sunrise already and surely it wouldn’t hurt to close his eyes for just a moment.

 

Ianto jolted awake when the SUV came to a sudden stop. They had arrived at the garage of the hub and before he could even fully register his surroundings, Jack was already out of the SUV and opened the trunk. Quickly, Ianto followed.

“I’ll take the nostrovite down to the morgue, can you-?” Jack said, his eyes fixed on the dead alien (wrapped in a body bag, thank god they always had these in the SUV).

“Yup, I’ll clean up here.”

“Thanks, Ianto.” Jack shouldered the body bag and made his way to the hub and down to the morgue. Not once had he even really looked at Ianto.

Ianto sighed. The wedding had taken its toll on everyone on the team, on Ianto as well, because it reminded him of a life that he had planned with Lisa. But he had recognized a long time ago now that that wasn’t a life he wanted anymore, not since Jack, anyway. It wasn’t an option, not when his lover would live forever and Ianto… Well, he had only a few years left, if he was lucky.

Ianto shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that now. He got rid of his tie and his suit jacket and set to work. It didn’t take much longer than half an hour to clean the SUV and put away the weapons and the singularity scalpel, so that soon enough Ianto found himself standing in the entrance of the main area of the hub. A quick glance around and he found Jack sitting in his office, soft music playing in the background. Jack didn’t look up from what he was doing and made no indication that he had noticed Ianto.

Ianto watched his lover for a few moments, then turned his attention to the state of the hub and once again set to work, cleaning up desks, throwing away trash and collecting the last of Gwen’s paperwork before her honeymoon off her desk. Coffee mugs were washed and put away and Ianto was tempted to make himself a cup of coffee, but decided against it. He’d go home and sleep, and truth to be told, he was too tired to bother cleaning the coffee machine.

Jack hadn’t moved from behind his desk when Ianto stepped through the office door. He saw an old metal box on the desk that he was sure he hadn’t seen before and Jack was holding something that looked like an old photograph. Still, no reaction from Jack.

“Is there anything you need, before I leave, _sir_?” Ianto asked, not bothering to hide his frustration anymore, too tired to even try.

Jack’s head snapped up and finally he caught Ianto’s stare. “No, I’m fine,” he said slowly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Ianto turned around to leave. He was disappointed. Yesterday he had thought that Jack and he would spend the night at the hotel or at the very least together at Ianto’s flat and have mind blowing sex all night long, but it was obvious now that that wasn’t going to happen. At least the drive to his flat wasn’t very long and the blinds in his flat were good enough to block out almost all the daylight.

“Ianto,” Jack’s voice called him back. “Wait.”

Ianto didn’t turn around and just asked, “Do you want some coffee before I leave?”

“No, no. Ianto, what’s wrong? Are you feeling alright?”

“Just tired, sir.”

There was a small pause where the only sound was the soft music (Glenn Miller, Ianto recognized), then, “I’m sorry, Ianto.”

At that Ianto turned back around, facing Jack. “Do you even know what you’re sorry for?”

Jack looked taken aback for a moment, clearly surprised by the bitterness in Ianto’s voice. “I don’t do weddings very well.”

“Yeah, well, neither do I, but I thought I’d at least be able to enjoy this one _with you_ , but you just made big eyes at Gwen the whole day.”

“She _was_ the bride and had an _alien_ inside her.”

“That’s your justification for looking at her like a love sick puppy all evening? For not even paying attention to me during our _only_ dance?”

“No.” Jack said quietly and looked down at the photograph in his hands. “This wasn’t about Gwen.” He almost whispered.

“What was it about then?” Ianto tried to keep his anger out of his voice. “Did I do something?”

“No, no!” Jack shook his head. “Weddings… remind me of what I’ve lost, of what I will lose. All that eternal love and ‘til death do us apart’… it’s all a big fucking joke with me, isn’t it? I was married once, when I was still so naïve about my _ability_ , and guess what? It didn’t work out! I loved her, but that wasn’t enough, it will never ever _be enough_ , because I will just go on until the end of time most likely and everyone else just _doesn’t_.” Jack’s voice was starting to quaver, and in that moment, Ianto’s heart broke for his lover. “Seeing Gwen, having this wedding and this normal life... she’s able to spend the rest of her life with her husband and grow old with him, and I just can’t _ever_ have that.”

 _Shit_ , Ianto thought, all his anger about his lover disappearing into thin air. Jack looked positively heart broken. Ianto couldn’t stand there and do nothing, so he walked towards Jack, who was still sitting behind his desk, and leaned down to hug Jack. Jack didn’t hesitate either and pulled Ianto closer, until Ianto was practically sitting on Jack’s lap.

“I’m sorry,” Ianto whispered. “I’ve been selfish. I should have realized that this day would be hard for you. I’m such an idiot!” He murmured into Jack’s shoulder.

Ianto felt how Jack pulled him even closer. “No, don’t say that! It wasn’t your fault. How could it be? I should have said something. I should have paid more attention to you. I knew that you wanted marry Lisa, and I just didn’t think.”

“Not your fault. You had other things on your mind.”

They stayed silent for a while, the music still playing. Eventually, Ianto asked, “Why the music?”

“My… wife. She and I both loved Glenn Miller and had it playing at our wedding reception. Gwen’s wedding just reminded me a lot of that day, and dancing with the bride last night… I wasn’t looking at Gwen like that, I was just remembering.”

“I know,” Ianto replied softly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed anything.”

“It’s okay. You couldn’t have known.”

“Tell me about her?” Ianto moved his head so that he could look at Jack. With one hand he wiped away some stray tears from Jack’s cheeks, making his lover smile softly at him.

“She was so beautiful, so full of life and always so positive about everything. I loved her.” Jack reached to his desk with one arm and took the photo he had looked at earlier. “Here.” He handed Ianto the photo. “It was taken on our wedding day. I was _so happy_.”

Ianto looked at the old photograph. Jack looked so serious and very handsome, standing next to his new wife. “You made a beautiful couple.”

“Yeah…” Jack sighed and took the photo back and put it back into the box with several other old photographs.

“If you… if you want, I’m sure I can find a way to preserve them a bit better.”

Jack stared at him. “That’d be-” Jack never finished his sentence and instead pulled Ianto’s head closer and kissed him, slowly and with so much emotion, that Ianto couldn’t help himself but fall even more for his lover.

“Thank you,” Jack said when they eventually broke apart.

“Always, Jack.” Ianto pressed a quick kiss on Jack’s lips. “Just – don’t leave me hanging like that again, please? I want to be there for you, while I still can.”

“I’ll try.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

Jack kissed him again, than motioned him to get up. Unsure what Jack wanted, Ianto raised an eyebrow in question. Just in that moment one song ended, and another one started to play – one that Ianto knew all too well was one of Jack’s favourite songs.

Jack held out his hand a smiled his biggest smile. “May I have this dance, Mr. Jones?”

Ianto stared at him in surprise, before he too smiled and took Jack’s hand. “You certainly may, Captain.” Ianto replied and let his lover lead him around his desk and pulled into a slow dance to the soft tunes of Moonlight Serenade.

For long moments, they simply gazed at each other, both of them smiling, as they moved to the music. Ianto had his arms around Jack’s neck and enjoyed the feeling of Jack’s hands on his waist, holding him securely. Neither of them knew later or cared about who moved first, but then they were kissing. It was a slow kiss, with their eyes closed, enjoying the familiarity of the other. It was a kiss for the sake of kissing, for transferring those thoughts and emotions where words just weren’t enough anymore. It was one of those kisses that left Ianto feeling warm all over and made his heart flutter. And despite their problems and their habit of miscommunicating it felt like home, it felt _right_.

 

They danced and kissed while one song changed to another and they lost track of time.

“I really like dancing with you, Jack.” Ianto murmured eventually half asleep, his head leaning on Jack’s shoulder.

He felt more than heard Jack chuckling. “I’ll take you out dancing on our next date.”

“Hmm.” Ianto smiled.

“Come on, I’ll take you to bed, you’re barely able to stand as it is.” Jack said with an adoring smile on his lips. “Today should be quiet day anyway according to Tosh's rift predicator.”

Ianto just nodded and let himself be lead down to Jack’s bunker and into bed, too tired to really care about the rift and too relieved that Jack was still _his_.

When they were lying in Jack’s bed, holding each other closely and almost asleep, Jack murmured, “Remind me to tell you about the one time I danced with the beautiful Rose on a spaceship in front of Big Ben.”

Ianto never replied, but he fell asleep with a smile on his lips. Not long after, Jack fell asleep as well, breathing in the scent of his lover and dreaming about old and new memories and for once those dreams didn’t turn into ghosts that haunted him in his sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading!
> 
> I'm not entirely sure about if/what information we have about Jack's wedding (when it was, for example, and if by that time Glenn Miller was already alive and making music), so I decided to just go with it, so that it'd fit with what I wanted to write (creative freedom and all that).  
> And then the usual: English isn't my native language and this is unbeta'ed. I'm sorry for any mistakes that I might have missed.
> 
> I hope you liked it nevertheless, and I'd die for some feedback :)
> 
> I'm on tumblr: [teaboyofficeboy](http://teaboyofficeboy.tumblr.com/)


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